Reviews of "The Very Thing That You Treasure"

"Beautifully crafted, laid-back pop songs as sunny as a fresh summer's day, and as melancholy as mid-fall, Spike Priggen's The Very Thing That You Treasure is a delicate, yet sophisticated acoustic pop record."

Alex Steininger

In Music We Trust

"The Very Thing That You Treasure, Priggen will tell you, has been a lifetime in the making. Quite frankly it’s been worth the wait."

Kurt Hernon

Bangsheet

If there is any justice in this teen-popping world, The Very Thing That You Treasure won't get lost on the streets. It's a sweet little treasure that deserves a home.

Carrie Havranek

SonicNet

"The Very Thing that You Treasure is, quite simply, an amazing album. From the first track, a gorgeously reverby, jangly pop ballad called "Every Broken Heart," you know you're into something good. Priggen's voice is kind of nasal and a little bit awkward, but there is a gentleness to it that is immediately charming."

Scout

Delusions Of Adequacy

"Next time I'm getting over a terrorizing, head-over-heels heartbreak, The Very Thing That You Treasure will be in the driver's seat, helping me cry myself into the nearest telephone pole. Until then, this unbelievably depressing CD will be sitting on my shelf, safe from unsuspecting ears that can't deal with its gut-wrenching power. Priggen definitely has issues with chicks, as several tunes (including "Every Broken Heart" and "She Used To Be My Baby") highlight a borderline obsessive-compulsive singer-songwriter bloodletting his emotions onto a recorded medium. Priggen has a way with words, and his exceptional lyrics weave intricate tales of desperation and loss that somehow, by the disc's end, inspire a sense of hope and yearning. Nonetheless, this potent collection of tear jerking, honky-tonk pop tunes is a marvelous expression of calculated emotional outbursts. Medical authorities should be contacted immediately, as this CD should only be allowed into your CD player with a prescription from your local psychiatrist."

Andrew Magilow

Splendid E-zine

“To be blunt about it, this is a brilliant LP, and as debuts go ranks right up there with those of Marshall Crenshaw, Big Star and The Pretenders. It’s full of indelible hooks and I just want to keep playing it again and again and again…One of the year’s best”

"His lyrics seethe with John Lennon's anger (and wit), but most often, and most brilliantly, they hinge on the sort of forlorn melancholy that Chris Bell made so affecting."

Red Tunic Troll

Amazon Customer Review

"In the finicky music world, Spike Priggen may well be destined to skirt around the perimeters of success for a few more years to come, but his satisfying songs are already worthy of a wider audience. Priggen's debut, The Very Thing That You Treasure, finds the accomplished musician joining the alt.country fray as a less cocky version of Ryan Adams. Two of the better offerings, Every Broken Heart and Outtasight take to the sort of countrified twang that R.E.M. tried for on 1991's Out Of Time. .. It is welcome news that Priggen has already set to work on a follow up."

Rip It Up Magazine

"Priggen's songs are so melodic and throw up so many surprises both lyrically and sonically that it is hard not to love everything on this record.All of the tracks have been a favourite at different times so it is hard to pick out a standout song. It changes from the opening 'Every Broken Heart' to everything in-between that and the last song, 'So Good To See You', a strange psychedelic ballad full of weird effects and mellotron.

Pennyblack Music Website

"In truth it's hard to single out tunes for praise when all 12 tracks are consistently solid. This is a 'song' record, an album that's not about glossy production or sampled drum beats. Spike Priggen writes damn good songs, and that's what you'll find on The Very Thing That You Treasure."

Barfly.com

"Not the most rock 'n' roll of names, and one most likely that most of you have never encountered before, but then 'The Very Thing That You Treasure' isn't the most rock 'n' roll of records. In fact, the debut from New York based multi-instrumentalist Priggen is a wonderfully vibrant melting pot of eclectic pop rock styles that will have power pop fans drooling.

Classic Rock (UK)

"Starting with a chorus of “Every broken heart is just like the first one”, Priggen shows his perfect hand early. Matching Teenage Fanclub with Matthew Sweet, he can’t help but sound like Big Star – which is even better! Irresistibly ragged production and endlessly bittersweet guitar solos will have you singing every line, and feeling like you wrote them all yourself. Proof beyond question that the one thing you can never grow out of is a teenage crush."

TNT Magazine (UK)

"It's an album of confidant versatility, and the two years it took to record are evident in the sound of the material, the care that has been given. So often these days music can seem meaningless, vocals tossed away with a cheap rhyme, but not here."

Spike Priggen is like a musician unstuck in time -- his music manages to sound a bit (and sometimes even more than a bit) like Jeff Lynne ("I Know Everything"), Jeff Lynne producing Badfinger ("Hideaway"), Big Star ("Little Star"), and any number of past musical icons, without ever actually mimmicking any of them. At the same time, his voice isn't great, but it is honest and expressive, sometimes beguilingly so. And when that attribute is coupled with his solid rock production, the effect is to turn romantic laments like "Everyone Loves Me But You" and "Disappointing Everyone" -- which, so logic tells us, ought to be lugubrious singer-songwriter indulgences, and (theoretically) the slowest part of this album -- into beautifully crafted pop-rock, gorgeous enough on every level to hold this listener's attention through multiple listens (something he almost never has time to do). And when he switches over to acoustic guitar, on "The Only Girl In The World", the results are mesmerizing -- he's fully in his element in that low-wattage setting, on one of the prettier country-rock style love songs that this reviewer has heard since Gene Clark left this planet. And "I'm So Glad You Broke My Heart" is a sardonically clever take on romantic separation, ornamented by some of the densest mix of high-wattage guitar and orchestral accompaniment this side of 70's-era Poco. By the end of the disc, it's still a little hard to pin down precisely what Priggen's "real" sound is, but with songs as good as this, does it really matter? Link.

"Spike Priggen is a guy that I’ve been meaning to hep you folks to for many weeks now. Ever since Innes Reekie sent me “There’s No Sound In Flutes" actually. With it’s Peter Bagge
cover you just know that it’s gonna hit the spot. So since then I find
out that Spike stayed in Edinburgh for a while in, I guess, the
mid-90’s? Anyway, this fact never cut across my radar at all which is a
damn shame because I feel like I really missed something."

"Since his return to the US, he’s cut three albums. “Flutes” (which actually had a UK release on Re-Action Recordings – there’s a copy in Avalanche, Glasgow for anybody in the locale) and also “The Very Thing That You Treasure” and “Stars After Stars After Stars”. All available from him, in terms of shimmering Big Star/Db’s type pop it doesn’t get more dazzling than this."

"He has an “all-star”
cast abetting him too which includes Jon Graboff and Mark Spencer, two
of the finest musicians currently languishing in NYC or anywhere. Bun
E. Carlos and Ivan Julian join in the fun too. I’m not sure what’s on his myspace page but it’s sure to put a smile on your mug."

“Stars”
is comprised of cover versions and I’ve no idea what some of the
originals sound like. I can’t conceive that they’re anything like this
but anyway. Those that are familiar – Ward Dotson’s “Be Married Song”, Chilton’s “Nightime” and Alice’s “I’m Eighteen” aren’t just a casual run through ala tribute band. The Ramones “Questioningly” is reborn as a country standard once again underlining just how great the songs were. “Big Store”
is credited to Stephen Duffy. Is that Tin Tin? I don’t recall his
output sounding like this but I’ve been known to wear blinkers at
inopertune times. Green Gartside’s “A Slow Soul” too… who’da thunk it?

“The Very Thing” kicks off with “Every Broken Heart”
which reminds me of the heady heights of TFC’s finest work. Graboff’s
12 string on this is fecking heartstopping. It ebbs and flows in all
the right places and then there’s the twang, woof! The Dwight
Twilley/Phil Seymour feel is uncanny too and it’s never pastiche or
knock-off. This stuff is up there with your favourite albums. No
question about it.

“Flutes” is the latest release and takes its name from the infamous Buddy Rich incident.
It continues the succession of sublime timeless pop that will never go
out of fashion. It may not garner acres of press but when you hear
something this accomplished then it makes a difference. The strings on “Hideaway”
swathe Spencer’s guitar solo in a setting that just elevates the whole
production, like Burt Bacharach conducting Uncle Tupelo. Elements of
this remind me of the great David Scott Esq. “Everyone Loves Me But You” should be a 7” single – no question. The Skeletons do The Archies style of “Something”
is another surefire hit in an alternative universe where manufactured
music is outlawed. A place we’d all rather be where all the bars are
like the Lakeside Lounge.

So
yeah, I missed the boat on this guy alright but you can’t win ‘em all.
Plus I was able to play catch up in the end so all’s well that ends as
such. If you get the cd’s then there are “hidden” tracks on there too, I don't imagine those would be involved in any download situation.

All
three are fine, fine records. Utterly recommended and certain to become
sought after. Not content with making downright groovy music, Spike is
also the guy behind this.

Jarvis Cocker recently asked what the point of writing about music is; well one of them is to pass on the virus when a record like this infects you, to get the word out for artists who deserve to have a massive audience. Spike deserves to be appreciated; he makes the kind of joyous intelligent music that should be a common denominator amongst music lovers of every stripe, the kind of thing that if someone doesn’t like then you think that they can’t like music. I feel bad for not owning his previous two efforts.

Each song is a mini-symphony to love crammed full of detail; like Matthew Sweet he is able to marry the discordant and the melodious into a satisfying whole. ‘Hideaway’ has corkscrewing lead guitar sparking above a bank of strings and sounds brilliant. After the drums usher in ‘I Know Everything’ and the melody takes over, you are in pop heaven; the hits keep on coming like a fantasy jukebox - ‘Everyone Loves Me but You’ draws on 50 years of pop history to deliver a succinct treatise on the put-down song.

Just to prove he doesn’t need to travel at warp speed to be effective, throw in a ballad ‘Disappointing Everyone’ with gentle strings, cool guitar and you’re devastated - or he picks up the acoustic for ‘The Only Girl (in the World),’ adds some fiddle and slide guitar and gives it a country feel. Crank up the balladry a notch, add in some flowing strings and you have ‘I’m So Glad You Broke My Heart,’ where big is definitely beautiful. Don’t forget the jangle pop though - ‘RIP Green Eyes’ finds some ground between REM, the Feelies and Kevin Tihista and fills it with a garden of power pop where sunshine vocals, chiming blooms of guitar and breezes of orchestration provide the perfect setting for the song. I hope that my words will make a few of you investigate further. Link.

Spike Priggen "There's No Sound in Flutes!"By Tim DenUplifting sad songs that both rock and comfort.

"Even though there are far too few of us left, fans of standard-yet-smart guitar pop a la Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, The Kinks, etc. will be glad to know that guys such as Spike Priggen are still out there penning uplifting sad songs that both rock and comfort. Think of that crunchy Fender Twin sound with just the right touch of distortion, combined with eloquent vocals that speak in delicious, melodic lines, and throw in nooks-and-cranny lead breaks / drum fills / backup harmonies… voila! Catchy songs that are packed with sophisticated hooks, reeking of timeless relevance. Whatever happened to songs like these? Look around you: aside from Ben Folds and The Cardigans (who can’t even get a U.S. deal these days), are there any acts left who haven’t abandoned craft for gimmickry? Spike Priggen doesn’t use dance beats, wear mascara, rip off Joy Division, or rape synthesizers like useless electroclash fuckfaces: he has spent his entire life playing with giants (Jon Brion, DJ Dmitri, members of Laura Cantrell’s band, even Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos), and his material shows. There is a familiarity in his tunes because your subconscious remembers a time when “pop rock” was a compliment and not a dirty, “unhip” phrase, so embrace how absolutely enjoyable and intelligent this album is and drop the façade, will ya?" Link.

If you pick up today's paper, open up Weekend and look at Making a Mix,
you'll find that Spike is this week's subject. In the feature, I
briefly mention how good the record is, but let me just say that this
disc will more than likely make it on my best-of 2006 list at the end
of the year.

It's simply power-pop goodness. The tunes go down easy and leave you feeling plump and happy, with a big belly full of power chords and piano fun.

The point of all this? Well, it'd be a shame not to check out Spike and his band (which will be full of guest stars) play at Cafe Nine Saturday. The gig brings Spike back home to celebrate the record's release, and you'll be able to buy the disc there.

As Nike likes to say, just do it. And then let me know right here what you think.

Veteran alt-rock scenester, bedazzled.tv blogger, and all-around pop-culture junkie Spike Priggen makes music as a way of defining and expressing his eclectic taste, and on There's No Sound In Flutes! (Volaré), he celebrates simple pop songs pumped up with kitchen-sink orchestration. A lot of Priggen's songs sound as programmatic as homages can be, but he transcends his influences occasionally, like on "Little Star," a '70s AM-ballad exercise with a winning heart-on-the- sleeve lyric, and "Everyone Loves Me But You," a nasty bit of twangy power-pop. B- By Noel Murray

New Haven native Michael “Spike” Priggen’s guitar-hooked pop songs are so catchy, you’re not sure what the titles are because every single lyric is so quotable. On the opening track, the verse goes “I know everything,” while the chorus wonders “Maybe it’s wrong to be right.” “Little Star” says “You know I’m not that smart/And you know I’m not that strong/And how could I be precious/When you bought me for a song?,” a sentiment continued on “Everyone Loves Me But You,” which begins “You think that you’re so smart…” Spike’s last disc was an all-covers project, so it’s thrilling to hear 11 Priggen originals in a row, his guitar, vocals and keyboards backed by the rocking yet reverent rhythm section of Scott Yoder and Brian Doherty, with guest appearances by Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos and guitar great Mark Spencer. This instant pick-me-up keeps you up by varying the arrangements from alt-rock to alt-country to power pop. The angry-dad cover cartoon by Hate ’s Peter Bagge and cryptic album title cinch its irresistibility. —Christopher Arnott

Neat! Even more Spike Priggen! This Asian import collects 15 songs by his late-‘70s outfit TV Neats, plus one by the Excerpts (co-starring Hamden-raised popmaster Jon Brion). A bonus disc captures TV Neats live at New Haven’s ECA Arts Hall in early 1981. These peppy, propulsive pop tracks (with titles like “Dear Abby” and “I Said Oh No”) are an important document of the shaping of the local scene, as well as a snapshot of pure-pop Priggen before he deepened his sound via Hello Strangers. —C.A. Link

This is a review of both of my solo LP's. Now I'm not sure exactly what these say (or why a site with a Belgian domain is written in Dutch) but I got an idea from Babelfish that this guy likes 'em both. Link.

The true star of "Stars After..." is the songwriting. It's introspection at it's best and only strengthened by Spike Priggen's crisp vocals. After each listen you feel yourself getting involved in the songs and the stories told. Stories of engagements not meant to be (Be Married Song), heartfelt apologies (How We Were Before), bad memories, heartbreak and whisky (Questioningly). He approaches songwriting with heart in hand as if each moment of his life had a soundtrack. Accompanied by Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, Spike Priggen pulls off on the most well written disc in years. It's got a country pop vibe like John Doe.R.I.Y.L.: R.I.Y.L.: John Doe, Matthew Sweet, Paul Westerberg

Reviews Of "Stars After Stars After Stars"

"New York-based Spike Priggen of Liquor Giants, Pussywillows, and Dumptruck enthralled fans with his 2001 solo debut's synthesis of Big Star's chime, the dBs' quirkiness, and Dwight Twilley's pure pop power. This follow-up of lovingly selected covers (in the tradition of Bowie's Pin-Ups and the Band's Moondog Matinee) melds the hearts and minds of the originals with his overarching melancholy, mating a collector's ear for material with a producer's imagination for re-creation. Highlights include Priggen's versions of the Pontiac Brothers' yearning "Be Married Song" and the Zombies' delicate morning-after B-side "How We Were Before." The Ramones, Tracey Thorn, and Scritti Politti's songs all find a common wistfulness in Priggen's soul- and country-inflected arrangements. Closing the disc is a mesmerizing found-sound "J&H Productions" tape, in which a would-be Cincinnati concert promoter attempts to "get with" the "label industry." Whether the "label industry" "gets with" Spike Priggen, lovers of Lennon, Chilton, Stamey, and Sweet certainly should."

Eli Messinger

East Bay Express

"Although it is a highly eclectic collection of mostly obscure songs by other artists, Priggen's second album, "Stars After Stars After Stars," underscores the considerable depths of his talent. Priggen makes each song his own, giving the album a remarkable coherent sound. Some of that is due to his song selection, songs which, except for a straightforward reading of Alice Cooper's "Eighteen," render themselves to his vaguely rootsy power pop interpretations. Priggen reclaims "Questioningly," the Ramones' well-written but improbable stab at country-rock and rescues from obscurity early British pop gems such as Tracy Thorn's "Plainsailing" and Scritti Politti's "A Slow Soul.""

Mark Wilson

Evansville Courier & Press

"This second album finds Spike Priggen and a bunch of friends (Ivan Julian, Bun E Carlos, etc.) covering some great underknown songs by folks like the Pontiac Brothers, the Zombies, Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth the Jacobites, Tracy Thorn, the Ramones, etc. If Spike is doing all of the vocals as the press kit seems to indicate; he's the best singing vocal mimic I've ever heard. His Tracy Thorn, and Joey Ramone are uncanny."

George Parsons

Dream Magazine #5

"Priggen is a frequent performer on the NYC scene and at various times has been a member of Dumptruck, Hello Strangers, Liquor Giants, Schramms, and Pussywillows. His 2001 debut revealed a tremendous talent for perfect pop songs often filtered through a country sound. Therefore, the first track on his new disc comes as quite a shock with its blast of synthesizer. Thereafter, he returns to his normal style, for which a useful comparison is Freedy Johnston, whom Priggen resembles in vocal timbre, melodically (especially), and to a lesser extent in overall style. It's a sound that doesn't work well unless lavished on high-quality songs, and Priggen supplies plenty."

Steve

The Big Takeover

"Most of the album is a nostalgic look back at the artist's past, including the bands he's played in as well as those he's idolized, including the Hot Bodies, the Jacobites, and the Zombies. He works through these songs competently and respectfully, and in the end what he's created is a tribute to his own musical development. But in doing so he's also given us a window back into some forgotten moments in music from the 70's and 80's various indie, new-wave, and punk scenes."

George Ford

Delusions Of Adequacy

"On Spike's new "Stars After Stars After Stars" he pulls off the neat trick of recording a classy set of covers (The Pontiac Bros. "Be Married Song"; Zombies, Jenifer Jackson, Sudden & Kusworth) with a star-studded cast (Bun E Carlos, Ivan Julian). He's kicked around in some bands that almost crossed over (Dumptruck, The Liquor Giants, The Caroline Know)--can he finally get a break?". -